The rider, 42-year-old Joshua Epple of San Francisco, was traveling southbound on Highway 101 near 10th Street just before 2 a.m. when he lost control of his motorcycle for unknown reasons, according to the California Highway Patrol.
Epple hit the guardrail, was ejected from the bike and fell 30 feet to a parking lot below, sustaining fatal injuries, the CHP said.

A note on
the Drewes website confirmed the sad news: "It is with heavy heart that we announce that our
friend, boss and owner of Drewes Meats, Joshua N. Epple was taken from our lives early this morning." Josh is survived by his brother Isaac who is also co-owner of Drewes.

February 5, 2014

The Noe Valley Voice is published ten times a year and has been a neighborhood fixture since 1977. Here are notable highlights from the latest issue. Links are to stories we've covered here on NVSF or other resources. Follow the NVV link at the bottom for full articles and all the ads.February 2014

Cost of Living in Noe: The average cost of a single family home was $1.893 million in December - up more than 18 percent from 2012 [Ed.-- The median cost of the nine homes was $1.75M]; condos average $1 million. New renters should expect to shell out an average of $4,253 for a two bedroom apartment.

Rumors: So far $560,000 has been pledged to the Noe Valley Town Square and $330,000 has been collected - in the meantime, the team has also been busy with a film for the project called Our Town Square (you can watch the trailer here); Cardio-Tone has added a second location at the old Kohler Jones space on Church St; 1513 Church St is home to a new startup called BackerKit - a company that writes software for Kickstarter project creators to track their backers [Ed.-- Is this Noe Valley's first actual tech company?]; La Tira waxing studio opens in the old Dermalounge space; the most popular fiction books in Noe right now are The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt and Dear Life: Stories by Alice Munro; the most popular non-fiction is Gray City of Love by Gary Kamiya (via Folio Books); Omnivore reports the favorite cookbook for the neighborhood right now is Jerusalem by Yottam Ottolenghi; the favorite movie for rent is The Butler (via Videowave); Mazook says reliable sources also report that Bliss Bar will not be rebuilt; a new title company comes to 4126 24th St (next to Barney's where B.J. Droubi Real Estate used to reside); Sway consolidates to the Haight and the commercial space and two residential units have sold for an expected $2.2 million - the store space is still for rent $12,000 a month; RIP Mike Skoufas who opened a Noe Valley barbershop in 1953 called Mike's (his daughter owns and operates Of Barbers and Bears on 24th St.).

February 3, 2014

A reader tipped us that Café Ponte closed suddenly yesterday. We walked by today and sure enough – the windows are papered over and the corner café at 751 Diamond St at 24th is closed. We heard from another reader today who spoke to the new owner and learned this:

The new café will be called Diamond Café – a nod to the former name of the neighborhood spot. It will serve crepes, omelets and basic brunch and lunch fare. The new owner (Mike) is also an employee of Squat & Gobble so that gives you an idea of what will be offered. The space is currently being painted and spruced up – Mike expects to open in 2-3 weeks. There will still be outdoor dining space, too.

Café Ponte has been for sale (and not) several times in the last few years, so it's not a surprise to see it change hands. It is nice to see it will still be a local lunch and coffee spot and reopening soon.